New Sun-Maid Girl Allegedly Sexy, Actually Tron Nostalgia

December 4, 2009

Most people over the age of 12 will see this commercial and think: huh, the Sun-Maid Girl has gone crappy-computer-animation. Some folks, however, look at this and think, “Sexy.” KSEE, Yahoo, and others are complaining that the Girl, who has repped raisins since early last century, has been made somehow more pruriently-interesting. “Looks like a Barbie Doll in Amish attire,” says Yahoo. “Yet another makeover. And apparently some implants,” says Jezebel. “The new Sun-Maid Girl’s raisins are growing,” oh-yuks Ad Rant.

This is a million miles from the point. The new Sun-Maid Girl is not a modernization, but a different style of retro. Her more defined waist and larger breasts are not meant to make her look sexy, but to make her look like a TV commercial mom from the 1970s. And face it, they can afford better animation than that — they want you to think of Tron and — ahem — The California Raisins. Sun-Maid always pulls the nostalgia gimp-string; but nostalgia, not Sun-Maid, is what’s changed. CAD-CAM on Quadras is as far back as anyone remembers